Craig waved his hand impatiently.  “You didn’t succeed, did you?  And you’re ashamed of it, aren’t you?  Well, if I wasted time going round apologizing for all the things I’d done that I’m ashamed of I’d have no time left to do decently.  So that’s out of the way.  Now, help me.”

“What a generous fellow you are!”

“Generous?  Stuff!  I need you.  We’re going to stay friends.  You can do what you damn please—­I’ll like you just the same.  I may swat you if you get in my way; but as soon as you were out of it—­and that’d be mighty soon and sudden, Grant, old boy—­why, I’d be friends again.  Come, tell me how I’m to get clear of this engagement.”

“I can’t talk about it to you.”

“Why not?”

“Because I love her.”

Craig gasped:  “Do you mean that?”

“I love her—­as much as I’m capable of loving anybody.  Didn’t I tell you so?”

“I believe you did say something of the kind,” admitted Craig.  “But I was so full of my own affairs that I didn’t pay much attention to it.  Why don’t you jump in and marry her?”

“She happens to prefer you.”

“Yes, she does,” said Craig with a complacence that roiled Arkwright.  “I don’t know what the poor girl sees in me, but she’s just crazy about me.”

“Don’t be an ass, Josh!” cried Grant in a jealous fury.

Craig laughed pleasantly.  “I’m stating simple facts.”  Then, with abrupt change to earnestness, “Do you suppose, if I were to break the engagement, she’d take it seriously to heart?”

“I fancy she could live through it if you could.  She probably cares no more than you do.”

“There’s the worst of it.  I want her, Grant.  When I’m with her I can’t tolerate the idea of giving her up.  But how in the mischief can I marry her?  I’m too strong a dose for a frail, delicate little thing like her.”

“She’s as tall as you are.  I’ve seen her play athletes to a standstill at tennis.”

“But she’s so refined, so—­”

“Oh, fudge!” muttered Arkwright.  Then louder:  “Didn’t I tell you not to talk to me about this business?”

“But I’ve got to do it,” protested Craig.  “You’re the only one I can talk to—­without being a cad.”

Arkwright looked disgusted.  “You love the girl,” he said bitterly, “and she wants you.  Marry her.”

“But I haven’t got the money.”

Craig was out with the truth at last.  “What would we live on?  My salary is only seventy-five hundred dollars.  If I get the Attorney-Generalship it’ll be only eight thousand, and I’ve not got twenty thousand dollars besides.  As long as I’m in politics I can’t do anything at the law.  All the clients that pay well are clients I’d not dare have anything to do with—­I may have to prosecute them.  Grant, I used to think Government salaries were too big, and I used to rave against office-holders fattening on the people.  I was crazy.  How’s a man to marry a lady and live like a gentleman on seven or eight thousand a year?  It can’t be done.”